Meghan’s activist voice has been ‘either silenced or appropriated by the monarchy’, say researchersTRISTAN FEWINGS/BFC/GETTY

She was hailed as the feminist princess who would shake up the royal family. But the Duchess of Sussex is rapidly turning into little more than a traditional royal woman, according to researchers who have analysed how she has changed since meeting and then marrying Prince Harry.

The duchess, they say, is letting herself be subjected to a “conservative, upper-class makeover” while simultaneously allowing her celebrity status to be used to “re-legitimise” the royal family’s male monarchical power.

The criticisms are contained in an academic paper published by Celebrity Studies, a journal that “focuses on the critical exploration of celebrity, stardom and fame”. The authors, Laura Clancy and Hannah Yelin, point out that the duchess, then Meghan Markle, was a vocal advocate for women’s rights…

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